Cradle of Filth/Type O Negative

A few short years ago, Cradle of Filth was utter crap. There's not much in music worse than a bunch of campy Brits trying to mingle Goth, fetish fashion, and black metal -- and failing on all counts. But the band's 2003 opus, Damnation and a Day, is a masterpiece, easily one of the best metal releases of the year. It's symphonic, operatic, brutal, and unrelenting: Cradle of Filth has finally mustered the substance to match its style. The troupe's current live show transfers all that to the stage in ways that would make Marilyn Manson piss himself.

Type O Negative, co-headliner on the current tour with Cradle of Filth, has been plowing its Bauhaus-meets-Black-Sabbath rut for a long time, to little avail. One psychedelic novelty tune ("My Girlfriend's Girlfriend") doth not a career make. But the band's latest single, "I Don't Wanna Be Me," displays enough self-awareness in its title to win Pete "Buns of" Steele a momentary reprieve. And it almost rocks.

Opening act Moonspell is probably the world's premier band in whatever genre you get by mixing Goth with thrash. If that's your thing, then Moonspell's your band. Extra points because their singer wears a cassock onstage.